RELEASED 2/28/22
Contact: Jim Mehrling 440-463-2557
Headline: ELYRIC CATHOLIC DEFEATS FIRELANDS ON
SCHOLASTIC GAMES ACADEMIC PROGRAM
A final-round rally by the Firelands team wasn’t enough to overturn Elyria Catholic’s sustained early lead on this week’s matchup on Lorain County’s high school quiz show, the Scholastic Games. Now in its 32nd year on WEOL radio (AM930 and FM 100.3), The program is heard weekly on Mondays from 6-7 p.m. The February 28th broadcast was a 290 to 250 victory for Elyria Catholic but the program’s highest losing score of the season for Oberlin’s Firelands High School, guaranteed both teams a return for the playoff rounds.
Elyria Catholic, which maintained a strong lead in scoring after four of the five rounds of questions in the competition, was represented by team captain Connor Sisson, Gabriel Nagrant, and Thomas Manville, who earned the program’s $50 “Standout Scholar” award, a prize judges present to the student who contributed the most to his or her team. The Firelands team consisted of Nathan Bodak, Rachael Rennie, and Joe Formholtz.
The “initial round” with all “S” answers, ranging from subpoena to symbiotic, yielded 50 points to Elyria Catholic and only 10 to Firelands. The EC lead continued in the Current Events round, ending with an 80 to 30 score. A theme round on the timely topic of Black History followed. The teams did better with early history, scoring with questions about Jesse Owens and George Washington Carver but missing with more recent items such as naming Colon Powell. Again Elyria Catholic advanced its lead, ending the round with a 120 to 50 score.
EC appeared unbeatable following the fourth round. That round presents a series of clues for each answer, with a correct answer to a first clue yielding fifty points, and then diminishing point values for up to four additional clues, the last of which is ten points. Clues about Hong Kong brought an incorrect answer from Keystone at the 40-point level, then a score of 30 points for Elyria Catholic. A series of clues about the surname Booth started with clues about the founder of the Salvation Army, and then clues about the famous actors of that name. It was the final clue about Lincoln’s assassin that yielded ten points to Firelands, the team’s only score in the round.
Then clues about the FBI eliminated both teams. EC scored 20 points on clues about Liberia, but its one big score was 50 points from the initial clue describing the state of West Virginia. Firelands had buzzed first with the wrong state and the EC response followed right after.
The final round of questions, a lightning round of over nine minutes which offers 20-point bonus questions, began with a 220 to 60 advantage for Elyria Catholic. Then there was a surprise surge in scoring from Firelands. The team more than tripled its score and won the round by scoring 190 points to EC’s 70. It wasn’t enough to erase the lead, however. Maintaining a 40-point advantage Elyria Catholic was victorious. However, if Firelands keeps its position as the highest-scoring losing score, it will earn a bye to the Scholastic Games quarter finals.
The broadcasts will end in May with the 32nd annual County Academic Championship. Playoffs will include all winning teams and the highest-scoring runner-up teams as well, competing as “wild cards” prior to quarterfinals in April. Following broadcast the station archives the programs online (http://weol.northcoastnow.com/2022-lorain-county-scholastic-games/ ).
Scholastic Games began in the fall of 1990 with the support of Nordson Corporation and has continued on radio station WEOL during every school year since. The format, originally developed for a Cleveland program in the 1980s, has changed little in the run of the show, though the questions are continually updated. Scholastic Games is the longest-running program of its type in the region, and its focus on greater Lorain County has provided maximum opportunities for local students to compete.
Here is the balance of the first round broadcast schedule, with programs running between 6 and 7 p.m. on Mondays, subject to modification when conflicts with live sports coverage occurs:.
3/7 Avon Lake vs. Lake Ridge Academy (Defending Champion School)
3/14 Elyria vs. Vermilion
3/21, 3/28, 4/18 – Quarterfinal Qualifying Competitions
4/4, 4/11, 4/25, 5/2 – Quarterfinals
5/9, 5/16, 5/23 – Semifinals and Championship
Over the years, twelve different schools have won the championships, including Amherst Steele (1991, 2015), Elyria (1992, 93, 94, 97, 2000), Admiral King (1995, 1998), Oberlin (1996), North Ridgeville (1999, 2002), Avon Lake (2001, 05, 20), Midview (2003), Keystone (2004), Lake Ridge Acad. (2006, 10, 21), Vermilion (2007, 08), Avon (2009, 16, 17,19), Olmsted Falls (2011, 12, 13, 14, 18).
The program has enjoyed long-term support from Nordson Corporation and various funds of the Community Foundation, this year including the Steve Boyza Fund, the Patsie C. Campana Sr. Fund, the Schaeffer Family Fund, The Stumphauzer, O’Toole, McLaughlin, McGlamery & Loughman Co. Fund, the “Touch the Future” Fund, the Al Hillegass Fund, the Ford MacArthur Endowment Fund and the Madeleyn Metzger Fund. Additional support is from the Nord Family Foundation and the Community West Foundation. The radio sponsors this year are EcoTree Services and the Elyria Public Library System, which has provided venue space for program sessions for several years.
Area colleges and universities participate by providing $1000 tuition credit awards for allocation by participating high schools. Participating for all or most of the program’s thirty-year history were Lorain County Community College, Oberlin College, Ursuline College, Ashland University, Heidelberg University, John Carroll University, with more recent additional awards from the University of Findlay, Lake Erie College, Tiffin University and Notre Dame College of Ohio.
The program’s host and producer, Jim Mehrling, is a veteran northeast Ohio broadcaster. After seven years as Chief Announcer at WEOL, he was Production Manager for, first, Cleveland’s WERE-AM and later at Cleveland’s WCLV-FM. He was recipient of a 2019 President’s Award from the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters. Again this year, most Scholastic Games programs will be followed by a talk feature, “Dialogues in Education,” which presents education success stories with its host, award-winning journalist Bob Tayek.
BROADCAST ON AM 930 – WEOL – From MEHRLING STUDIOS, BEREA, OH, 44017-2449, Telephone 440-463-2557